From the Desk of CLASSICKONG
Good morning, Kong Crew!
Welcome back to WTSG-DB and another journey through the records, radio waves, movie screens and memories that make up This Day in Music History.
August 11 gives us one heck of a ride.
Today we’ll travel from Elvis Presley and Neil Sedaka to the unmistakable groove of Booker T. & the M.G.’s. We’ll visit the Beatles at Abbey Road, witness a foundational moment in hip-hop history, cruise the streets with American Graffiti, salute one of the greatest personalities ever to sit behind a radio microphone, remember a pivotal figure in the rise of KISS, give Get the Knack the respect it deserves—and eventually hand Jesse James Dupree a chainsaw.
Yes.
A chainsaw.
Apparently that’s where we’re going today. 😂
But as always, before we turn up the music…
We Begin With Our Armed Forces 🇺🇸
Before today’s first record spins, everyone here at WTSG-DB pauses to recognize the men and women of the United States Armed Forces.
To those serving today, those who served before them, and the families who stand beside them: thank you.
We remember every veteran and every active-duty service member who has defended and continues to defend the freedoms we enjoy today—including the freedom to turn on a radio, play the music we love, share our stories and gather together as one great community.
From all of us at WTSG-DB:
We salute you. 🇺🇸
1956 — Elvis Gives Rock & Roll a Two-Sided Knockout 🎙️
Elvis Presley — January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977
By the summer of 1956, Elvis Presley was no longer simply an exciting young singer from Memphis.
He was becoming a cultural earthquake.
That summer brought together two recordings that would become inseparable from the Elvis story:
“Don’t Be Cruel”
and
“Hound Dog.”
Both were recorded during Elvis’ July 2, 1956 RCA session in New York and paired on one remarkable RCA Victor single, released July 13, 1956.
Rather than one side becoming the hit while the other disappeared, both sides became classics.
“Don’t Be Cruel” gave listeners that smooth, bouncing Presley swagger, while “Hound Dog” delivered something altogether more aggressive—a pounding drumbeat, guitar, handclaps and an Elvis vocal filled with attitude.
Put the two together and you’ve got one of the great singles of the rock & roll era.
A Few Essential Elvis Albums 💿
Elvis Presley — 1956
Elvis — 1956
Elvis’ Christmas Album — 1957
Elvis Is Back! — 1960
From Elvis in Memphis — 1969
That’s the Way It Is — 1970
Elvis Country (I’m 10,000 Years Old) — 1971
Nearly seventy years later, either opening comes through the speakers and there is no mistaking who you’re hearing.
That’s Elvis.
1962 — Neil Sedaka: Breaking Up Is Still Hard to Do 🎹
Neil Sedaka — March 13, 1939 – February 27, 2026
On August 11, 1962, Neil Sedaka sat atop the Billboard Hot 100 with one of the most instantly recognizable pop records of the early 1960s:
“Breaking Up Is Hard to Do.”
Written by Sedaka and his longtime collaborator Howard Greenfield, the record became Sedaka’s first No. 1 single in the United States.
And that opening?
You don’t even need the words.
A few seconds of those famous nonsense syllables and generations of listeners know exactly what’s coming.
Sedaka later revisited “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do” and transformed it into a slow ballad, demonstrating just how strong the underlying melody really was.
Same song.
Completely different mood.
That’s songwriting.
And Neil Sedaka was one hell of a songwriter.
Classically trained and enormously gifted at the piano, Sedaka gave us songs including “Oh! Carol,” “Calendar Girl,” “Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen,” “Laughter in the Rain” and “Bad Blood,” while his songwriting reached far beyond the records bearing his own name.
His career also pulled off something remarkable: after enormous success in the late 1950s and early ’60s, he returned to major prominence during the 1970s and introduced himself to another generation of listeners.
A Few Neil Sedaka Albums 💿
Rock with Sedaka — 1959
Circulate — 1961
Emergence — 1971
Solitaire — 1972
The Tra-La Days Are Over — 1973
Laughter in the Rain — 1974
The Hungry Years — 1975
Steppin’ Out — 1976
We lost Neil earlier this year at the age of 86. And for CLASSICKONG, who loved Neil Sedaka’s music, there is really only one way to finish today’s remembrance:
They tell me that you’re leaving,
we heard the news, it’s true.
But Neil, we just want to say,
how much we appreciate you. ❤️
— CLASSICKONG, WTSG-DB
Thank you for the songs, Neil.
Thank you for the melodies.
And thank you for helping provide the soundtrack to so many of our lives.
1962 — Booker T. & the M.G.’s Serve Up “Green Onions” 🎹
Also making noise in 1962 was one of the coolest instrumental records ever committed to tape:
“Green Onions” — Booker T. & the M.G.’s.
Booker T. Jones’ Hammond organ opens the door, Steve Cropper’s guitar walks through it, and suddenly you’ve got a groove that needs absolutely no vocalist to tell you what to do.
You just feel it.
The classic lineup would become:
Booker T. Jones — keyboards
Steve Cropper — guitar
Donald “Duck” Dunn — bass
Al Jackson Jr. — drums
As the house band at Stax Records, members of the M.G.’s became part of the foundation beneath countless soul recordings.
But “Green Onions” stands beautifully on its own.
Booker T. & the M.G.’s — Albums to Know 💿
Green Onions — 1962
Soul Dressing — 1965
And Now! — 1966
Hip Hug-Her — 1967
Doin’ Our Thing — 1968
Soul Limbo — 1968
McLemore Avenue — 1970
Melting Pot — 1971
Put “Green Onions” on today and tell CLASSICKONG that thing doesn’t still sound cool.
You can’t.
1964 — The Beatles Go Back to Work 🎸
On August 11, 1964, the Beatles entered EMI Studios in London and recorded “Baby’s in Black,” beginning the sessions that would produce their fourth UK studio album:
Beatles for Sale — released December 4, 1964.
The album arrived during an absolutely relentless period for:
John Lennon — October 9, 1940 – December 8, 1980
Paul McCartney — born June 18, 1942
George Harrison — February 25, 1943 – November 29, 2001
Ringo Starr — born July 7, 1940
Beatlemania was exploding internationally, touring schedules were brutal, movie commitments were piling up—and somehow the records kept coming.
Among the songs on Beatles for Sale:
“Eight Days a Week”
“No Reply”
“I’m a Loser”
“I’ll Follow the Sun”
“Every Little Thing”
“Baby’s in Black”
“Words of Love”
“Rock and Roll Music”
The Beatles to This Point 💿
Please Please Me — 1963
With the Beatles — 1963
A Hard Day’s Night — 1964
Beatles for Sale — 1964
There’s a weariness beginning to creep into some of the songwriting and even the album photography, but there’s also unmistakable growth.
The Beatles machine was running at full throttle.
1973 — A Party in the Bronx Helps Change Music Forever 🎧
On August 11, 1973, a back-to-school party was held in the recreation room at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx, New York.
The DJ was Clive Campbell—DJ Kool Herc, born April 16, 1955.
Rather than simply playing records from beginning to end, Herc emphasized and extended the instrumental “breaks”—the sections dancers especially responded to—using two turntables.
That August 11 party has since become widely recognized as a foundational moment in the development of hip-hop culture.
And there’s an important distinction worth making about Kool Herc.
Unlike many of the hip-hop artists who followed, Herc’s legacy wasn’t built around a traditional catalog of studio albums.
His instrument was the turntable.
His stage was the party.
His contribution was what he did with the records.
That’s one reason trying to attach a conventional studio discography to DJ Kool Herc misses the point. His historical importance comes primarily from his pioneering DJ techniques, parties and influence on the culture that followed.
Like rock & roll, blues, jazz, country and soul before it, hip-hop would grow, evolve, splinter into countless styles and eventually influence music around the world.
Whatever musical neighborhood we personally call home, history deserves its due.
And August 11, 1973 holds an important place in that history.
1973 — American Graffiti: Cruising, Rock & Roll and the Magic of Radio 🎬
Now THIS one belongs at WTSG-DB.
On August 11, 1973, audiences were introduced to George Lucas’ American Graffiti.
Set in 1962, the movie follows a group of young people through one long summer night of cruising, relationships, uncertainty and growing up.
And surrounding almost every moment is…
music.
The soundtrack became legendary:
Bill Haley and His Comets.
Buddy Holly.
Chuck Berry.
The Beach Boys.
Fats Domino.
The Platters.
Del Shannon.
The Crests.
The music isn’t simply pasted onto the movie.
It’s part of the world these characters inhabit.
Cars roll through the streets.
Radios glow in dashboards.
Records come through little speakers.
And floating over everything is a voice.
The Wolfman Is On the Air 🎙️
Wolfman Jack — January 21, 1938 – July 1, 1995
Born Robert Weston Smith, Wolfman Jack became one of the most recognizable personalities in the history of American radio.
That gravelly voice.
The howl.
The laughter.
The mystery.
At his peak, listeners across enormous stretches of North America could hear the Wolfman blasting through powerful border-radio transmitters. Eventually his syndicated programs reached stations around the world.
George Lucas understood exactly what Wolfman represented.
Lucas himself had listened to Wolfman Jack on the radio, and in American Graffiti, Wolfman’s broadcast becomes almost another character in the movie.
He’s out there somewhere in the darkness.
Everybody hears him.
Nobody quite knows where he is.
And somehow everybody feels connected through that radio.
A Personal Note from CLASSICKONG ❤️
Wolfman Jack has always been one of my radio heroes.
There are broadcasters who play records, and then there are broadcasters whose personalities become part of the music itself.
Wolfman was one of those rare talents.
His voice, humor, energy and larger-than-life personality demonstrated something I’ve always believed about radio:
Radio can be personal.
One voice coming through one speaker can somehow make a listener feel like somebody out there is talking directly to them.
Wolfman Jack wasn’t simply one of America’s great disc jockeys.
For generations of radio fans and broadcasters who followed him, he was proof of what radio could be.
And musicians knew it too.
In 1974, The Guess Who released “Clap for the Wolfman” on their album Road Food.
Better still, the Wolfman himself appeared on the recording, bringing that unmistakable voice right into the song.
Wolfman Jack died on July 1, 1995, at just 57 years old.
But that voice never really disappeared.
Turn on an old aircheck.
Watch American Graffiti.
Drop the needle on Road Food.
And suddenly he’s back.
So today, more than fifty years after The Guess Who offered their musical salute, everybody here at WTSG-DB gladly joins in:
Clap for the Wolfman. 👏🐺🎙️
1973 — Bill Aucoin Sees Something in KISS 🤘
Also in 1973, four young New Yorkers were trying to convince somebody—anybody—that their outrageous new band could become something enormous.
Those four men were:
Paul Stanley — born January 20, 1952
Gene Simmons — born August 25, 1949
Ace Frehley — April 27, 1951 – October 16, 2025
Peter Criss — born December 20, 1945
And the band was KISS.
During this early period, television producer and future manager Bill Aucoin — December 29, 1943 – June 28, 2010 saw KISS perform at New York’s Hotel Diplomat.
Aucoin saw something.
Maybe not the finished product.
Maybe not yet the band that would fill arenas.
But he saw possibility.
He soon became their manager and played a crucial role in helping KISS secure the recording deal that brought them to Casablanca Records.
And the members of KISS have never forgotten Bill Aucoin’s importance to their story.
Before the KISS Army…
Before Alive!…
Before the merchandise…
Before the arenas…
Before Destroyer…
Somebody had to believe that these four guys in makeup might actually pull this crazy thing off.
Bill Aucoin believed.
CLASSICKONG Goes Down the Casablanca Rabbit Hole 😂
Now here’s where today’s story took an unexpected turn at WTSG Command.
CLASSICKONG remembers owning Destroyer and staring at the back of that album enough times that the Casablanca Records name and logo became permanently attached to KISS in his memory.
And then a question occurred to us:
Casablanca?
Bogart?
Well…
Casablanca Records founder Neil Bogart — February 3, 1943 – May 8, 1982 was born Neil Scott Bogatz.
Bogart eventually founded Casablanca Records, whose identity deliberately evoked the classic Humphrey Bogart film Casablanca.
Which means our journey somehow became:
Humphrey Bogart → Casablanca → Neil Bogart → Casablanca Records → KISS → Destroyer.
Essential Early KISS 💿
KISS — 1974
Hotter Than Hell — 1974
Dressed to Kill — 1975
Alive! — 1975
Destroyer — 1976
Rock and Roll Over — 1976
Love Gun — 1977
Alive II — 1977
And naturally, once Humphrey Bogart enters the room…
Lauren Bacall isn’t far behind.
Bogart and Bacall made four films together:
To Have and Have Not — 1944
The Big Sleep — 1946
Dark Passage — 1947
Key Largo — 1948
And suddenly another record comes drifting out of the WTSG library…
“Key Largo” — Bertie Higgins 🌴
In the early 1980s, Bertie Higgins, born December 8, 1944, turned the romance and mythology surrounding Bogart and Bacall into the hit single “Key Largo.”
The song became a Top 10 hit in America and Higgins’ signature recording.
And yes, Kong Crew…
That famous Bogie-and-Bacall connection is precisely why we’re standing in Key Largo after beginning this story with KISS.
Only at WTSG-DB.
😂
Here’s looking at you, kid. ❤️
A Little Bad Company for Tomorrow’s Road 🎸
This one technically arrives tomorrow, August 12, but since we’re already traveling through the great rock records of the era, we’re giving you a one-day heads-up.
In 1974, Bad Company released their debut single:
“Can’t Get Enough.”
The original lineup featured:
Paul Rodgers — born December 17, 1949
Mick Ralphs — March 31, 1944 – June 23, 2025
Boz Burrell — August 1, 1946 – September 21, 2006
Simon Kirke — born July 28, 1949
That Mick Ralphs guitar riff is everything a great rock riff should be:
Simple.
Immediate.
Memorable.
And when Paul Rodgers starts singing, there is absolutely no confusion about who’s holding the microphone.
Essential Bad Company 💿
Bad Company — 1974
Straight Shooter — 1975
Run with the Pack — 1976
Burnin’ Sky — 1977
Desolation Angels — 1979
Rough Diamonds — 1982
Their self-titled debut alone gave us “Can’t Get Enough,” “Ready for Love,” “Movin’ On,” “Rock Steady,” “Bad Company” and “Seagull.”
No gimmicks required.
Just one hell of a rock band.
1979 — Get the Knack Takes Over America ⚡
On August 11, 1979, The Knack began a five-week run atop the Billboard album chart with their debut:
Get the Knack — released June 1979.
And yes, everybody remembers:
“My Sharona.”
It became one of the defining singles of 1979.
But CLASSICKONG wants to make something perfectly clear:
The Knack was NOT just “My Sharona.”
The original lineup:
Doug Fieger — August 20, 1952 – February 14, 2010
Berton Averre — born December 13, 1953
Prescott Niles — born May 2, 1954
Bruce Gary — April 7, 1951 – August 22, 2006
And Get the Knack was packed:
“Let Me Out”
“Your Number or Your Name”
“Oh Tara”
“Selfish”
“Maybe Tonight”
“Good Girls Don’t”
“My Sharona”
“Heartbeat”
“Siamese Twins (The Monkey and Me)”
“Lucinda”
“That’s What the Little Girls Do”
“Frustrated”
From CLASSICKONG’s Record Collection ❤️
CLASSICKONG remembers this album well.
I loved The Knack, and I loved Get the Knack.
This wasn’t an album you bought for one song.
You dropped the needle and let the record play.
The band was tight, energetic and ridiculously catchy, and the album still captures that brief moment when power pop came roaring into mainstream America.
“My Sharona” may have opened the door for millions of listeners.
But there was a damn good band standing behind it.
Essential Knack Studio Albums 💿
Get the Knack — 1979
…But the Little Girls Understand — 1980
Round Trip — 1981
Serious Fun — 1991
Zoom — 1998
Normal as the Next Guy — 2001
Doug Fieger and Bruce Gary may no longer be with us.
But put Get the Knack on today and that band comes roaring right back out of the speakers and right back into your heart. ❤️
1992 — Jackyl Arrives… Somebody Hide the Power Tools! 🪚🤘
On August 11, 1992, Jackyl released their self-titled debut album on Geffen Records:
Jackyl — 1992.
By then, rock music was changing rapidly.
Grunge was exploding.
Hair metal was fading.
Alternative rock was taking over MTV.
And then Jackyl showed up sounding like somebody had thrown AC/DC, Southern rock, a bar fight and a hardware store into the same blender.
The album delivered:
“I Stand Alone”
“When Will It Rain”
“Down on Me”
“Dirty Little Mind”
and, naturally…
“The Lumberjack.”
Frontman Jesse James Dupree, born September 22, 1962, didn’t merely perform a conventional instrumental break.
He performed a chainsaw solo.
Because apparently somebody looked at rock & roll and said:
You know what this needs?
More two-stroke engine.
😂😂😂
The classic Jackyl lineup featured:
Jesse James Dupree — vocals
Jeff Worley — guitar
Tom Bettini — bass
Jimmy Stiff — guitar
Chris Worley — drums
Jackyl Albums to Know 💿
Jackyl — 1992
Push Comes to Shove — 1994
Cut the Crap — 1997
Relentless — 2002
When Moonshine and Dynamite Collide — 2010
Best in Show — 2012
Rowyco — 2016
Their debut became a multi-platinum success and established Jackyl as one of the most distinctive hard-rock bands to emerge from the early 1990s.
Say what you want.
When a man walks onstage carrying a chainsaw…
you remember the band.
Today’s CLASSICKONG Trivia Question 🧠
Today’s movie helped introduce millions of people to the mystique of Wolfman Jack.
But what was Wolfman’s real name?
A. Robert Weston Smith
B. Alan Freed
C. Murray Kaufman
D. Robert Morgan
Think you’ve got it?
No Googling, Kong Crew.
The Wolfman is watching. 🐺🎙️
Final Spin 🎶
What a strange and wonderful road August 11 gave us.
We began with Elvis Presley helping define rock & roll.
We celebrated the remarkable talent and music of Neil Sedaka.
We grooved with Booker T. & the M.G.’s.
We visited the Beatles at Abbey Road.
We watched a Bronx party become part of music history.
Then we climbed into a car, turned on the radio and cruised through American Graffiti with Wolfman Jack coming through the dashboard.
We watched Bill Aucoin believe in four young men called KISS before much of the world knew what to make of them.
That somehow led us through Casablanca Records, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall and all the way down to “Key Largo.”
We cranked Bad Company.
We gave Get the Knack the respect that great album deserves.
And then Jackyl showed up with a chainsaw.
Honestly…
that’s a pretty good day in music history.
😂🤘
And maybe that’s the lesson today.
Music history isn’t a straight line.
It’s a web.
A record connects to a movie.
A movie connects to a disc jockey.
A disc jockey connects to a kid listening late at night.
A record label connects to an old Hollywood movie.
An album connects to a memory.
And decades later, one song can still take you straight back to the room where you first heard it.
That’s why we keep these stories alive.
Because the records may stop spinning…
but the memories don’t.
Until tomorrow, this is CLASSICKONG for WTSG-DB reminding you:
Keep the music playing.
Keep the memories alive.
And never underestimate what one great voice coming through a radio can mean to somebody listening on the other end.
❤️🤘🎙️🇺🇸
Trivia Answer 🧠
A. Robert Weston Smith.
Before the howl, before the gravelly voice, before millions of listeners knew him simply as the Wolfman, Wolfman Jack was Robert Weston Smith.
Have mercy! 🐺🎙️
Listen to Today’s Broadcast 🎙️
Sit back, relax, and enjoy today’s story in audio form with CLASSICKONG.
